Early Childhood Development Practices
Childhood is an essential process in life that every person has to experience. The growth process among children should be well shaped to ensure that the child grows up to be responsible, intelligent, and thoughtful individuals. According to Piaget’s Cognitive developmental theory, children grow and learn in different phases, from the use of sensory organs as babies (sensorimotor stage) to the stage where a child can think and reason about more challenging concepts (formal operational stage) (McLeod, 2018). I believe that all childhood care programs should incorporate various childhood learning strategies that are friendlier and challenging at the same time for children. Children need to be taught using multiple approaches to grow up as smart- thinking and responsible individuals.
Children between three and six years are more sensitive to learning new things compared to younger ones. Therefore, teachers and parents need to be keen on the surroundings of the children. Children’s curriculum should be planned so that every activity the child engages in is beneficial and educative. I firmly believe that an appropriate and educative curriculum is one that is both fun and educational. After all, children tend to learn and remember teachings if the lessons were associated with play or any fun activities (Sanders et al., 2018).
The role of childhood care and development should not only be placed on teachers alone. Parents also play an essential role in child development. Parents should be keen on their children’s learning process since they learn best when responsive adults surround them. I also believe that it is vital for parents to understand their children’s strengths and weaknesses at an early stage to understand the learning strategies they can implement to help the child’s learning process. Not all childhood learning strategies are applicable to all children (Bakken et al., 2017). Every child is unique in their special way, and I believe that each child should be treated so that it does not make them feel as if they are not competent enough.
A teacher’s role in childhood development is to ensure that the child learns and adopts various cognitive skills that will help them in the future (Bakken et al., 2017). As a teacher, one needs to teach children the importance of various disciplines, many of which enable the child to understand multiple life concepts. My philosophy on classroom management and discipline is that children should be taught the importance of social activities.
As a teacher, it is essential to create the best and most conducive learning environment. To do this, it is necessary to interact with other teachers regarding the strengths and weaknesses of different children to improvise the children’s best learning strategies. Interacting with other teachers and ECE staff enables me to formulate strategies that will impact each child positively. My goal as a teacher is to ensure that each child grows up to be responsible individuals who can apply various teaching methods in their day-to-day lives.
My role as a teacher is to ensure that each teaching respects and coincides with the children’s family background’s religion and cultural practices. Respecting and encouraging diversity among children makes the learning process easier for children. Teachings that respect the various cultural beliefs prevent the children from confusion since the age between 3-6 years is the age of curiosity and learning and impacting different instructions from the ones taught in their homes would be confusing and hectic for the child’s learning process.
Work Cited
Bakken, Linda, Nola Brown, and Barry Downing. “Early childhood education: The long-term benefits.” Journal of research in Childhood Education 31.2 (2017).
McLeod, Saul. “Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.” Simply Psychology (2018).
Sanders, Kay, and Flora Farago. “Developmentally Appropriate Practice in the Twenty-First Century.” International handbook of early childhood education. Springer, Dordrecht, 2018.